ownCloud 7 on Firefox OS

You probably read my previous posts about update a free host (in Greek), upgrade my ownCloud openshift instance or the easy installation using setup-owncloud.php. Well, my first impressions were that the design has changed from Ubuntu-like (launcher on the left) to more ownCloud unique compact thing (although you should know that the applications are "hidden" under the cloud on the top left corner). I have all my files filtered (shared etc) and viewed at glance, at the left side of my screen. Generally, it seems faster than the old version (not only using my PC but also using my mobile). The setup-owncloud.php script is the best feature I think (even if it's old). A noob user can install ownCloud (if he has a server running). A feature that I would like to have is to read my mail from my ownCloud instance. Unfortunately roundcube didn't work. I hope I made a mistake and didn't work for me. Please ownClouders, create an easy app to setup and read IMAP mail.

I wanted to test the feature that ownCloud 7 has about the mobile support. I hope this post will help the developers at ownCloud conference to create an application for Firefox OS. I want to show you how it looks and how it works. The screens are in Greek but I didn't change the language of my instance.

As you probably understood, I use Firefox OS (Alcatel One Touch Fire). So I opened free host ownCloud instance. First of all, enter username and password.

So first screen is files.

If you sweep from left to right, you'll see the extra menu (shared, external and deleted files).

1. USER MENU

Let's explore the interface. At the top right corner, there's the user menu (my picture). Tap there to view the pop up menu and then click Personal (it's the first option).

2. APPLICATIONS

Click on the top left corner to see all the available applications. I'll show you one by one the basic applications, and use some extra I added.

3. FILES UPLOAD

It's quite fast, at least with small files. I tried to upload the files I took screenshots. The folder is photos (for obvious reason).

Click the arrow and then choose the files (firefox os will ask you what type of file you want to upload and then choose the file).

After you choose, it'll preview what you'll upload. Click OK (top right corner) and wait (there's the progress bar).

4. DoCUMENTS

Let's try to write a document (DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. IT'S ONLY FOR EMERGENCY REASON). It's very painful since the screen is so small.

Click on the new document icon and start to type.

As you can see, there's hardly one line to write your document. You can change the title of your document.

5. PICTURES-GALLERY

How can I see what pictures I have? Well, the files preview, show me a small thumbnail that I cannot understand. So I can use the gallery view. First choose the album you want to see (here I click photos).

Then you can see all the pictures that the "folder-album" has. Tap the one you want to see.

6. NEWS RSS

After the google reader death, many of us tried to find how to replace it. Well, there's a cool extra application you can enable. It's called news.

When you tap on the RSS you want to read, the stream show up. Unfortunately, the alignment isn't perfect. Not sure if my device cannot align it or it's the application (sorry but the last post to planet ownCloud was mine ;-) ).

7. CALENDAR - CONTACTS

I put those two together since I didn't start to use them yet. I just want to show you how it looks like on my Firefox OS phone.

8. ADD APPLICATIONS

There's a site with extra applications http://apps.owncloud.com/. Go there and search what you like. How you can enable this application? From the add application menu.

Tap on application to see the status and enable it from here (here I enable dependencies info).

9. ACTIVITY - SEARCH

If you use your instance with others, you have to know what files changed. To do that, you can use activity feature.

Sometimes though, you might search for a file. You can do that too. The screen doesn't help you but you'll get your result.

I hope you liked the pictures. I didn't test music or video applications since the screen is too small and also the bandwith not very high. So I leave those two features for my PC/Laptop.